"November squad was pretty cut up on the Autumn. Over half casualties, but you finally managed to redirect their attack and then get the hell out of Dodge. Not bad, not bad at all." Major Silva nodded from his chair. "You have new orders." He began, but was cut off. "With all due respect, Major Silva, I'm sure you're a great leader, but you let me do my job, and I'll let you do yours." Mainevent responded indignantly. "Now you just wait just a gotdamned minute! Who the hell do you-" He was cut off again as Mainevent turned and left the tent carelessly. McKay, his second-in-command, let out a muffled chuckle. "Guards, take that man into custody." Two burly makeshift MP's turned to arrest the trapped player, but November squad's members wouldn't let that happen. Mainevent had luckily been forced into a tall, muscular man's body, and could have probably handled the men himself. Goatrope and Wado already had their weapons drawn, while CoLd BlooDed and FOrunnER kept anyone thinking of doing something stupid at bay. 'Nosolee, who had just gotten out of a two-minute shower, only had a standard-issue battle knife with him, but he was a damn deadly aim. "Talk to Alpha Lance and Hunter_Killer. They should be in the command center. They'll rank Silva, and he'll approve it. Trust me on this?" The two men nodded quickly, and handed Goatrope their weapons. A heavy hacking cough conveniently reminded them to remove their sidearms as well. One of the men was mumbling something under his breath as they entered Silva's tent. "'Nosolee, I want you suited up and on pad three." "Yes sir." "And I want you on pad three two minutes ago." Mainevent's words were clear, and the half-naked man jogged to his makeshift quarters. "Goatrope, Wado, hit whatever weapons stash they have around here, and make sure we have enough ammunition to make it..." "Make it through what sir?" Goatrope asked what no one else dared to. "Whatever we need too." Mainevent turned and headed towards a hand-scribbled sign that said "Landing Pads". Goatrope and Wado headed off towards whatever armory there was, as CoLd BlooDed and FOrunnEr followed distantly behind their squad leader.

"Where's the weapons?" Main asked with a harshness that bordered anger, but was low enough to portray denial. "These are the weapons. There was no armory. We had to scrounge these up by lying to several marines and saying we were going on an Op that needed bullets." "Hey, cap, where we headed?" 'Nosolee asked over the ship's loudspeakers. "The Autumn, she'll have a hell of an armory. We can even bring that dick Silva and his posse back some love as a gesture of our good will towards man." "To the moon Alice!" Goatrope yelled as the engines roared to life.

It was a good two and a half hours to the ship, taking a route the bypassed a small covenant division that could be seen for several miles in the open plains. The ringworld sloped upwards gradually, which made flying awkward as you had to adjust your course ever so slightly here and there. The wrecked hulk of the ghost ship loomed ahead. The thick brown cloud of dust she'd kicked up was still looming, and would help the crew more than hinder. Mainevent had taken seat in the co-pilot's chair, and was monitoring radio waves, and the radar. "We play the game enough to know that a thick red dot on the radar isn't good." "Yea, what abo-oh hell." 'Nosolee noticed the monitor as he began, and squinted into the dust. Main activated the nose gun, and toyed with it for several seconds before reading the ammo counter.

142

"Alright November squad, lock and load. Walker's got the Walking Dead, well, we're Straight out of Hell ourselves. What should we call ourselves?" "The Main Event of course." Wado replied enthusiastically. "And our motto can be, The first in and the only out." CoLd BlooDed added. "I got an idea for our symbol." FOrunnER held up a sketch he'd been working on, and it was surprisingly good considering the rough patches of turbulence and such they'd encountered. It was a large spread eagle, holding a knife in it's beak, two M6D's in it's talons, and clutching MA7B Battle Rifles in both wings. "I like it." 'Nosolee said as he looked back from the cockpit. They entered the protective cover surrounding the Autumn, with a heavy Covenant presence directly beneath them. Plasma fire churned holes in the scattered air particles, but none managed to land. The crew breathed a collective sigh of relief as they rounded the massive hull break that had formed in the ship as it half careened off of the cliff side. A single thin maintenence bride spanned the gap, leading between the obstruction. "Is that what I think it is?" Someone asked. "Remember what happened to Foehammer?" "Way to jinx it brilliance." FOrunnER responded. "Holy...anybody here actually realize who's pelican we took?" Mainevent asked as he stared at a small strip of paper taped to the bulkhead. "No, who's...wait...it can't be..." "Yea, it is. We took Echo 419. I can't believe it. We took the most revered dropship pilot in gaming history's dropship. That's like taking Gandalf's sword..." "You mean Foehammer." Wado chuckled. "Oh shut up." Main responded. The large docking bay opened up before them, the single Longsword still docked right where it was in the game. Three Warthogs with supply wagons were parked nearby, and they were quickly commandeered. The team sped along the large path and finally stopped about a kilometer upspin. "We only know where one of the armories are, but we can't possibly jump the chasm with any sort of supplies. Too much weight, and the obvious dilemma that we couldn't carry a damn thing in the wagons." Goatrope let them have the news everyone was thinking. "I'll tap the Autumn's layout, see what we can find." 'Nosolee tapped several keys on the M12 LRV's dashboard, and a thin layout of the ship appeared. "Three levels up, and four rooms to the left." Everyone smiled. "Leave them where we are. Goatrope and Wado with me, CoLd BlooDed, FOrunnER, and 'Nosolee, you guys wait here at the bottom of the elevator, and keep an eye out for covies." The trapped players all agreed, and even snapped salutes for fun. A half hour later and they'd secured enough weapons and ammo for a small army, which is exactly what was depending on them. They turned the 'hogs around and headed back to the Pelican. Unfortunately, it was a hotbed of activity for the Covenant, who had seen the ship enter from below. "I know you guys have mad leet skillz, and are uber haxorz, but can you finally prove those sniper skills I always hear about?" "Yea, we can." The team went prone, each member with a sniper rifle. They coordinated the attack taking out all of the elites circling the air vehicle, then it was only a matter of systematically picking off Grunts and a couple Jackals. "Hey, I can take 'em all out with this." CoLd BlooDed smiled as he hefted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder, but Main shot that plan down by pointing at the Pelican. The group drove down the small ramp to the Longsword, and Main told them to load all the weapons into it. "Alright, first we take Foehammer's Pelican, now you want to take the Chief's escape ship? You're fucking the game up." Goatrope stated with a hint of confusion at the whole situation. "That's right, it's a game. We need these now, not them. Alright, here's the plan. 'Nosolee, you take the Longsword and supplies back to Alpha Base, don't stop for anything. They need this more than we do." Main's eye caught on something in the bay. "I'll need you guys with me, we're going to get some Pelican ammo, and gas." Wado and FOrunnER covered the remainder of HBO'ers from behind the large rectangular pillars forming an aisle to the Longsword, which had already taken off. Grunts and Jackals took cover behind an overturned pile of crates and occasionally fired back. Main sprinted towards the Pelican, and prepped her for the exit, fairly sure he could pilot her after watching 'Nosolee at the stick. Goatrope and CoLd BlooDed quickly stacked box after box of Pelican 70mm HE ammo onto the flatbeds, and filled a large 500 gallon container with fuel. After five minutes it was all ready to go. "Meet me at the Longsword ramp, we're leaving." Echo 419 whined as the throttle was pushed slowly forward, Mainevent learning it's controls as he went. It's wide belly hovered several feet above the pad, and the men quickly loaded her with supplies. The 500 gallon tank was too heavy to lift onto the ship by far, and the crew luckily found a small hatch at the bottom that could hold such containers. It was snugly secured, as well as the Warthog, and the crew jumped in. Wado opened fire on the grunts, tearing them to bloody shreds from 50mm fire, and the Pelican edged out of the bay and into open air.